| 研究実績の概要 |
Throughout the second year of the project, I successfully finalized the sample processing to determine the ingestion of microplastics by zooplankton collected on Si Chang Island in the Gulf of Thailand from August 2022 to April 2023. Sampling was carried out during different seasons, including wet, intermediate, and dry, and at varying tidal intervals (spring and neap tides), with a one to two-week gap between each sampling. I characterized the size, shape, and polymer types of the SMPs ingested. Mps were also characterized in water samples. 750 individuals of the calanoid Centropages furcatus were analyzed, an average ingestion value of 0.41 ± 0.13 particles ind-1. All the particles were fragments, with a predominant size under 50 um, and polymer types as Polypropylene (PP, 71 %), followed by Ethylene-Propylene-Diene-Monomer (EPDM, 16 %) and Polyethylene (PE, 7 %). Up to 470.2 particles m-3 were estimated to be retained by this calanoid species and potentially available for trophic transfer. The effect of rainfall on SMPs ingestion was inconclusive, with a non-significant observed tendency to higher ingestion values near the coastal area than offshore area. The results are under review for the publication journal Science of the Total Environment (top 10%). Two papers were published as a result of this research project Alfonso et al., 2023 and Nakano et al., 2024.
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